“Greeks are lazy and send in list a day too late” (PowNed, February 23, 2015)

“Fear of Islamist plan to take over Egypt” (The Times, January 3, 2011)

In modern society, you are continuously confronted with headlines like the ones above. News websites, newspapers, and television programs give almost instant updates about situations worldwide. Clearly, these messages influence how we perceive the distant groups involved (e.g., Muslim Brotherhood, Greeks). But do those messages also influence how we perceive others within our own society? In other words, do for instance Dutch individuals perceive Turkish Dutch citizens differently after reading about the Arab Uprisings or, even less related, about the Greek economic crisis?

The answer is: Yes. Within my dissertation, I studied this question within different (ongoing) contexts. The answer seems clear: negative or threatening news about a foreign situation is highly likely to have a negative impact on how people perceive groups within their nearby surroundings. Interestingly, these generalizations not only occur for clearly related groups (e.g., Turks in Turkey and Turkish Dutch citzens), but also in situations where a connection is fabricated or less clear (e.g., Tajikistan and Indonesian Dutch citizens).

Threat by association

People’s reactions towards news about foreign situations often generalize to nearby groups. These generalizations seem to occur specifically when nearby groups could be associated with the foreign situation. For instance, Moroccan Dutch citizens could easily be associated with the Arab Uprisings as their origins are within the Arab region. Indeed, multiple studies indicated that reading negative news about the Arab Uprisings made native Dutch individuals more negative toward Moroccan Dutch citizens (e.g., Bouman, Van Zomeren, & Otten, 2014).

When Tajikistan was presented as a Middle-Eastern country (which, in fact, it is not), respondents became more negative towards Moroccan Dutch citizens

However, this association does not have to be as obvious as in the example above. More trivial links between the distant and nearby groups seem to work as well. For instance, we asked participants to read a fictitious report about violations of human rights and radicalization in Tajikistan – a nation most of the respondents did not know much about. When Tajikistan was presented as being part of Asia, respondents became more negative toward Indonesian Dutch citizens. However, when Tajikistan was presented as a country in the Middle-East (which, in fact, it is not), respondents became more negative towards Moroccan Dutch citizens (Bouman, Van Zomeren, & Otten, 2015a).

In addition, perceived threats from Greece on the world economy induced negative feelings toward Turkish-, Moroccan-, and Polish Dutch citizens. One explanation for these generalizations is that perceived threats from Greece alerted Dutch respondents about potential economic threats from groups within the Dutch society, inflicting negative reactions toward them. In addition, people responded negatively toward Greece, and these negative attitudes generalized to nearby groups about which respondents held similar stereotypes (e.g., lazy, profiteers; Bouman, Van Zomeren, & Otten, 2015b).

Positive generalizations?

The aforementioned studies indicated that negative and threatening news about distant situations can negatively affect how we perceive groups within our own society. We were interested whether similar processes occur for more positive news about distant situations. That is, does positive news about a distant situation cause more positive attitudes towards nearby groups? The answer seems to be no, or at least not as rapidly as negative news. Messages about positive outcomes of the Arab Spring (e.g., democratization, freedom) changed attitudes towards Egyptians, but did not generalize towards nearby groups such as Turkish and Moroccan Dutch citizens (Bouman et al., 2015c). Possibly, these positive messages receive less (cognitive) attention, are less prioritized, are seen as exceptions and as less diagnostic than negative news (for a similar argument see for instance: Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001; Rozin & Royzman, 2001).

Messages about positiveoutcomes of the Arab Spring (e.g., democratization, freedom) did not generalize towards nearby groups.

The question remains: How can we prevent these negative generalizations from occurring? Reports could provide more specific details about the distant groups involved and focus less on stereotypical characteristics (e.g., lazy, aggressive). This could keep the foreign situation isolated and detached from other (uninvolved) groups, preventing associations and, thereby, negative generalizations toward nearby groups. In addition, awareness of the fact that you might – unconsciously – generalize as well, might also stop these processes.

Conclusion

In sum, people have the tendency to generalize negative news about foreign situations into negative attitudes towards more nearby groups – groups you are likely to encounter in your daily life. These generalizations usually originate from associations between the foreign and more nearby groups, which can be unconscious and trivial. Accordingly, foreign news indeed has – mostly negative – nearby consequences. Being aware that you are also likely to generalize, could halt these processes, and keep the foreign news remote.

Thijs Bouman (Amsterdam, 1986) is a researcher interested in how the social environment shapes individuals’ behaviors. He is specifically interested in the influence of group values on individuals. How do individuals react when their group values are threatened? And how do individuals react when their personal values differ from those of their group? He studies these topics within different settings, ranging from value threats by media portrayals of foreign situations to the impact of group values on pro-environmental behaviors.

Currently, Thijs is working at the University of Groningen as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in Social and Environmental Psychology. Thijs graduated (cum laude) from the Research Master Human Behaviour in Social Contexts at the University of Groningen, after which he received funding by the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Groningen for his PhD proposal entitled “Threat by association”. He presented his research on multiple national and international conferences, for which he received travel grants from the Society for Personal and Social Psychology and the European Association of Social Psychology, and the graduate student poster award at the SPSP 2013 annual convention. For more information visit his website.

Publications

Bouman, T. (2015). Threat by association: How distant threats can affect local intergroup relations. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Groningen, the Netherlands.